Great stuff for the Thursday OPEN thread
“Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works. If it works big, others quickly copy it. Then you do something else. The trick is the doing something else.”
Leonardo da Vinci
February 28, 2013 - 10:00 AM
A great article by E. J. Dionne today.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ej-dionne-ending-the-permanent-crisis/2013/02/27/32c4f81e-8119-11e2-b99e-6baf4ebe42df_story.html
Thanks for the link, Ron. From Dionne’s piece:
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“And a staunch conservative has succinctly explained why this problem really is a Republican problem. In an admirably candid interview Monday with Ezra Klein on MSNBC, Ben Domenech, a conservative blogger, said the new tea party Republicans in the House don’t want their leadership to sit down with Obama to talk because “they have their doubts about the ability of Republicans to negotiate any better situation.”
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Read that carefully: We are in this mess because Republicans don’t trust their leaders to bargain. Domenech added that many conservatives “don’t buy this distinction between smart cuts and dumb cuts,” a distinction that is not “all that critical.” This is astonishing: Government is bad, so all cuts are more or less the same. And you wonder why we have a crisis?”
For those of us who grew up during Watergate, it is interesting to see the reaction of the Obamedia to Bob Woodward’s criticism. He seems he made the White House Enemies List and now the journalism world is attacking him instead of rallying to his defense.
http://twitchy.com/2013/02/28/obama-henchman-david-plouffe-bob-woodward-should-be-put-out-to-pasture/
#youllneverworkinthisbidnessagain
Yes Ron, it is interesting to see how a Washington Post editorial writer can completely parrot the White House position. It looks almost as if the White House wrote the column for him. #obamedia
It would appear that the Obama adminstration doesn’t take kindly to criticism, particularly when it comes from one of the few remaining true journalists who care more about the truth than what version of the story will play best with the public.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/50988772
Same thing happened in the Trayvon Martin case. One local reporter had the guts to write a point/counterpoint story telling ALL the facts from all angles. She was rewarded with over 2800 threats via phone, e-mail or comment. The result? The paper pulled the story.
If you want to know why it is difficult to balance the budget read the article linked below. I know it’s only a few hundred million dollars, but as Sen. Everett Dirksen used to say, “A few million here. A few million there. Pretty soon you’re talking real money.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/new-madrid-floodway-a-watery-waste-of-taxpayers-money/2013/02/26/bcfc4d74-7d41-11e2-a044-676856536b40_story.html
You are spot on Ron, that is indeed a major reason that so much money is spent “needlessly”.
#4 Did the WH also co-opt the conservative blogger, Henry? Let us know, please.
Yeah, Henry, the “liberal” media — including oh-so-liberal Tucker Carlson’s Daily Caller — is really going after Woodward.
Of course, that will happen when you make an allegation that doesn’t hold up to scrutiny.
DanRad
Rather interesting to see the Obamedia going after a journalist instead of questioning the White House. I guess that is what they get paid to do these days. After all, you don’t want your credentials threatened by the White House for getting “off message” like Woodward. Your editor would not keep you around if you weren’t bringing in those White House messages to print for the low-information voters. #youwillregretnotreportingfromyourknees
Dan R, the only “facts” the right wing needs are already in evidence and the “Chicago thugs” have “warned” that poor defenseless, clueless journalist. I have no doubt there was a horse head in his bed last night too.
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They are positively reptilian.
Sandi Saunders | February 28, 2013 at 1:16 pm Dan R, the only “facts” the right wing needs are already in evidence and the “Chicago thugs” have “warned” that poor defenseless, clueless journalist. I have no doubt there was a horse head in his bed last night too.
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They are positively reptilian.
XXXX I heard it was over 300 illegal aliens released from incarceration for criminal act by ICE worrying over Sequestration cuts to occur in April; picked up nothing on a horse head? LOL
Sperling means to say “I think you are wrong” but instead he says ” I think you will regret staking out that claim”.
Saying “I disagree” is a lot different from “You will regret staking out that claim”. The latter is a threat.
#8 I didn’t see anything from a conservative blogger.
To bad Wall Street bankers and their cohorts in crime don’t operate from the same set of values displayed by the young girl in this story.
http://now.msn.com/little-girl-sends-apology-after-taking-sticks-from-yosemite-national-park
Even though Henry has charged me many times with being part of the “Obamamedia,” it’s interesting to note that until this comment, I haven’t mentioned the Woodward controversy. Henry has repeatedly, though. Does that make him part of the “Obamamedia?”
It appears, however, that the prediction that Woodward would regret “staking his claim,” has already come to pass. Woodward has become the issue, rather than a journalist writing about the issue. No reporter or columnist ever wants to get put in that position. Just for starters it’s a huge distraction. I’m certain he regrets it.
Woodward=latest GOP tempest-in-a-teabag. You have to do something to mask your inability to govern.
“#8 I didn’t see anything from a conservative blogger.”
Henry, I pulled his quote out of the link in my post at #2.
Thanks for that link, Dan R. Imagine that, right wingers being played and falling for it hook, line and sinker.
My guess is that Woodward is a big boy and can handle himself in the sand box.
“I heard it was over 300 illegal aliens released from incarceration for criminal act by ICE worrying over Sequestration cuts to occur in April; picked up nothing on a horse head? LOL”
Seriously, Leon, what? I guess being a CPA doesn’t require coherent communication.
White House does the same to another journalist
http://www.wmal.com/common/page.php?pt=WMAL+EXCLUSIVE%3A+Woodward%27s+Not+Alone+-+Fmr.+Clinton+Aide+Davis+Says+He+Received+White+House+Threat&id=8924&is_corp=0
Woodward is the issue because he dared to oppose the President. Obama, not Nixon. Opposing Nixon was allowed.
Woodward should also, of course, regret the fact that he got it wrong, which is what Sperling was trying to tell him.
Most journalists – well, most journalists in the MSM, anyway – regret it when they report something inaccurate.
Obama didn’t move the goal posts, and everyone who has followed the debt ceiling fiasco, the sequestration debate and subsequent events knows this. Woodward is dead wrong on the facts, and if he doesn’t regret that, he should look for a new line of work.
DanRad
If Woodward is dead wrong on his facts, why can’t you tell us how he was dead wrong? Or should we just trust the Nixon White House when they say Woodward was dead wrong?
Oh sorry, I meant the Obama White House.
DanC,
If Cuccinnelli were to tell you that you will regret your claims against him, will you remain silent rather than risk becoming the issue? After all, you don’t want to be put in that position…..again.
Henry, Sperling clearly was not threatening: “But I do truly believe you should rethink your comment about saying saying that Potus asking for revenues is moving the goal post. I know you may not believe this, but as a friend, I think you will regret staking out that claim. ”
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Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/02/exclusive-the-woodward-sperling-emails-revealed-88226.html#ixzz2MDxIdt47
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Seriously? You think that is a “threat”?
Lanny Davis said it was a threat. U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has to apologize for threatening to punch a reporter who asked him a question so this is not new for this administration.
Remember when the media went crazy when Ari Fleisher said that people “should watch what they say” regarding Bill Mahr? That’s less of a threat than “you will regret saying that”.
Yeah, it’s a threat and the Obamedia’s attacks on Woodward are proof that it was a threat. If your neighbor says you will regret something and later his pit bulls come tearing down the street after you, it’s not a coincidence.
Henry, if an underling to Cuccinelli emailed me that I would regret the things I’ve written about his boss, I’d probably shrug it off as some silly and empty comment. I would not understand it as “a threat.” I have no idea what the person could threaten me with. And anyway, I’m quite comfortable with everything I’ve written about Cuccinelli — which includes a lot of fact and some opinion.
Btw, Dan R makes a good point that a mainstream journalist always regrets getting facts wrong.
Henry,
Sandi did a pretty good job of that, but even conservative commentators are realizing they’ve been played by Woodward. There’s simply no way of looking at Sperling’s email (see Sandi’s link for the full text) and justify Woodward’s characterization of that as a threat.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/02/28/white-house-denies-staffer-threatened-watergate-journalist-woodward/
read and weep libbiecoms
your boy is going down
Not that I expect you to read it Henry, but below is a link I posted yesterday in which two other journalists point out errors in what Bob Woodward said. I dont’ see Woodward going after them.
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/2013/0224/Why-are-Bob-Woodward-and-the-White-House-arguing-over-the-sequester/(page)/2
Kristen@19. . .reread the post @ 12 very s l o w l y. Take note where Sandi’s verbage ends and the “take off comment begins” Realize since
Sequestration has kicked in all the fun is done for liberal progressives. . .no more humor.
Even more threats from the Obama Administration using the same language
http://hotair.com/archives/2013/02/28/national-journal-chief-a-senior-wh-official-got-so-belligerent-with-me-i-had-to-drop-him-as-a-source/
“and virtually the same phrase that Woodward called a veiled threat.”
DanRad,
If you read the article, it is based on information that is not sourced. example: “Obama and Democrats have always insisted that a balanced mix of spending cuts and higher taxes replace sequestration,”. Yet there is no source for this claim by the blogger Talking Points Memo senior congressional reporter Brian Beutler. I don’t recall Obama calling for tax increases to ward of sequestering prior to the election. Sequestering was always based on cuts as far as I heard. The President has almost exclusively warned of dire cuts.
Democrat Maxine Waters warns of 170 million jobs being lost because of sequestering. 170 million. That’s a lot of jobs.
“Even more threats from the Obama Administration using the same language.”
–Henry
What’s so amusing about Henry’s statements on Woodward and other journalists’ testy relations with the White House is that it utterly undermines a theme he’s been pushing for years now: That the media is under the control of some imaginary Democratic “masters” who issue daily orders as to what to write each day.
Henry’s made that suggestion here at least 100 times in different comments. Finally, he’s admitting that it’s all malarkey.
The fact is, the press and Democratic administrations often have had testier relations than the press and Republican administrations. Reagan was famously fawned over by the press; Bill Clinton got no such kid-glove treatment. Even GWB got lots of passes from the media for much of his administration.
Of course, thinking people here always realized Henry’s theme was total BS. The funny thing is, now he’s undermined it himself!
(Nice job, Henry).
Michelle Malkin schooling the White House on civility. Oh, that’s rich…
Henry, where is Boehner’s plan to avoid the sequester? What will the GOP do in 10 days when their next manufactured debt-ceiling crisis becomes news?
Are Sperling and Woodward “friends”? If so, it is even more egregious and specious to call that a threat. But that has certainly never stopped Henry or the right wingers in general. Woodward’s reply to Sperling makes the case…against Woodward.
Just to be clear, Henry, you agree that every single thing Woodward has ever reported about the Reagan, GHWBush, Clinton, and GWBush administrations was absolutely accurate, is that right?
LOL Warren, good one!
Sandi, I love how you have acknowledged that your bar for right v. wrong moves based on politics. If the whole Bush/Dixie Chicks thing was the president unfairly intimidating private citizens then this is clearly the president using his staff to try to silence the media. Or are you ready to admit that whole Dixie Chicks thing was a big load of political BS?
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On a different note, it appears that Obama’s sequestration plan was about as well thought out as was Obamacare.
.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2013/02/sequestration_of_the_pentagon_budget_why_the_sequester_cuts_to_the_military.html
And another example of abuse from this White House
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2013/02/28/former-newsweek-editor-robert-gibbs-sent-me-abusive-email-article-i-w
“Henry, where is Boehner’s plan to avoid the sequester? ”
Actually, he shared that with Obama in their meeting. Obama said “no”.
DanC
You will notice that Woodward’s fellow reporters (like you and DanRad) are the ones trying to discredit Woodward because he dared to oppose the President. You are providing proof of the Obamedia. If you had stood up for Woodward, it would have destroyed my case. Instead, you made my case.
Henry I haven’t said one word to discredit Woodward. I have noted he has now become the story. This is a fact. No journalist ever wants to be in that position.
“Obama said “no”.”
Henry reveals his tenuous grasp of the way our government works. The president doesn’t get to say anything until Congress sends him a law.
Bob Woodward is a doddering old fool who falls asleep in his oatmeal.
(Hey, it worked for Uncle Walter when he criticized W…)
Inspired by George Zimmerman?: CC permit holder goes Rambo to stop fleeing shoplifter in Walmart parking lot; shoots up 3 cars; gets arrested.
(Florida standards for issuing permits are tougher than Virginia’s, btw)
No reporter has the access Woodward has. When he spoke out against the Bush admin, I didn’t like it, but I new it was accurate. Woodward has been telling the country what’s up and it’s what conservatives have been saying for some time. This White House has not been presidential. I was interested what the liberal media’s reaction to one of their own finally coming out about these unproductive tactics by the Obama Administration. I had no idea they would eat their own to keep their love affair going, espically after Obama has recently been treating them more like a botty call. Reading posts here, I can see many other hopeless romantics falling in line. Sad that ideology comes ahead of principal. Woodward is still a moderate liberal, but he’s going to paint an accurate picture when the rest of the liberal media makes fools of themselves. And people make fun of Fox News. What a joke. Watch Fox News so you can see what NBC and CBS edit out to make their point. Does anybody know NBC has been busted at least twice recently for removing key portions of tape in order to push their agenda. That’s your “serious” news media.
Go wahoos!
To Art Hill @ 33 above:
Here’s the Republican’s alternative to sequestration (words of Vicky Hartzler, MO Congresswoman):
“The House has voted twice to replace sequestration with common-sense cuts and reforms. In fact, the House Armed Services Committee has put forward another responsible alternative to sequestration. It calls for a 10 percent reduction in the federal work force over the next decade, with the cuts coming from attrition.”
As far as your statement that the debt-ceiling crisis is manufactured by the Republicans…I’m trying to find a universe where that could be considered a remotely serious statement. Please help me understand your logic. Is the debt not real, the crisis, or both?
Eddie, exactly. And congress has passed budgets too. The lack of leadership from the White House and the senate is the issue. I can’t believe that there are people on this board taking up for Obama and crew. Sandi and Art, you can’t be serious? Your thinking is idiotic.
“Watch Fox News”
Therein lies your problem.
Dan Casey | February 28, 2013 at 10:28 pm
Henry I haven’t said one word to discredit Woodward. I have noted he has now become the story. This is a fact. No journalist ever wants to be in that position
And you don’t have too. He’s doing a bangup job of that all by himself.
Henry,
Are you actually this uninformed, or are you just pretending to help make your point?
The sequester was put in place as a cudgel to force both parties to compromise. Compromise over what? Debt reduction. Why was a cudgel needed?
Because Republicans refused debt reduction that included any revenue whatsoever, and Democrats refused to slash entitlements and public services without additional revenue.
Try to keep up, Henry. You won’t look so out of it.
Obama and Democrats have been wanting revenue as part of the mix from the very beginning. That wasn’t “sourced” because anyone who’s paid any attention whatsoever already knew it.
I am always serious, it is your clown suits that are making this discussion “idiotic”. Does the truth hurt that much?
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No journalist has been “threatened”. The President has done plenty of good considering what he was handed. It is clear you people do not understand an economic collapse. Which is why you support the Sequester cuts. Good luck with that, they are all on you.
Watching Fox News, along with other media on both sides, allows me to school you on here Art.
Eddie | February 28, 2013 at 11:18 pm To Art Hill @ 33 above:
Here’s the Republican’s alternative to sequestration (words of Vicky Hartzler, MO Congresswoman):
“The House has voted twice to replace sequestration with common-sense cuts and reforms. In fact, the House Armed Services Committee has put forward another responsible alternative to sequestration. It calls for a 10 percent reduction in the federal work force over the next decade, with the cuts coming from attrition.”
As far as your statement that the debt-ceiling crisis is manufactured by the Republicans…I’m trying to find a universe where that could be considered a remotely serious statement. Please help me understand your logic. Is the debt not real, the crisis, or both?
Eddie,
The two bills Rep. Hartzler referred to were approved by the House in the last session of congress. Under the rules of the House, controlled by the Republicans, those bills died on December 31, 2012. Speaker Boehner could, if he wished, bring them up for a vote in the current session of Congress, but has chosen not to do so. The House has not in this current session of Congress done anything but go on vacation. There have been no votes on the budget in the House in this session of Congress.
I was pleasantly stunned this morning when I was looking through the RT and saw this story about my brother.
http://www.roanoke.com/news/1736361-12/harwood-paints-store-manager-put-others-first.html
Debbie I came on here now to comment on that! What a nice piece about your brother! He must have been very well thought of by a lot of people to have his passing get so much attention. Thoughts to you and your family this morning.
Wow, Debbie, so I knew who your brother was. Used to shop at Harwood, although I wasn’t there enough that your brother would have remembered me. Nice story.
That was a lovely tribute, Debbie. Your brother sounds like he was a good man who will be remembered for his many small kindnesses.
“your boy is going down…”
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For what, pammala? Even some conservatives have admitted that Woodward played them.
Henry, bud, it’s absolutely hysterical to watch you stumbling and sputtering around after discovering that you and your Free Republic buddies got played so expertly by Woodward.
Debbie,
No words can help you overcome the grief you are experiencing due to the sudden loss of your brother. The story about him indicates that he lived a good life committed to serving others and that those other folks recognized his service to them. Perhaps that knowledge can give you some comfort at this time. Just know that others are thinking of you right now. Peace.
It gave me a great amount of comfort, Ron, and my friends have helped more than I could ever say.. Thank you. I was stunned to see that story, but grateful that his life mattered to so many people.
” I have no doubt there was a horse head in his bed last night too.”
that is because your boy dictator is certainly capable of that type of thuggery. sandi get the low info voter award for the day…lol
Wow Debbie, that was a nice tribute. Obviously the community has joined your family in the loss. I hope that does bring you all some comfort.
Chuck, it is not that my “bar for right v. wrong moves based on politics”, it is that yours does. Equating an email between TWO people with the MILLIONS who heard Bush et al on down excoriate the Dixie Chicks is just childish.
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Unlike Bush, Obama has not involved himself and he did not send that email. No comparison.
#56 It’s a small town, Gdad.
Thank you, Kristen, Laura and Sandi. It’s all over now, so I can enjoy my daughter and her family while they’re here, and get back to being so amused by some of the comments on this blog. Some comments as always, are irritating and some are just so darn funny.
Debbie, I read the story, thought what a guy, what a shame, thought about his family, now find out it’s your family. I would have liked to have known him.
Thank you, Frank.